Our View: Time for Congress to go back to 'old school'

Tom Foley died last week. The former congressman from the state of Washington was speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1989 to 1994, and his passing merits comment now because when he left Capitol Hill, so did civility and bipartisanship, for the most part.

Journal Star

Writer

Posted Oct. 24, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Oct 24, 2013 at 12:25 PM

Posted Oct. 24, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Oct 24, 2013 at 12:25 PM

PEORIA

Tom Foley died last week. The former congressman from the state of Washington was speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1989 to 1994, and his passing merits comment now because when he left Capitol Hill, so did civility and bipartisanship, for the most part.

The Democrat Foley was representative of an era when people actually went to Washington to accomplish something for the good of the country, not to blow everything up. So was former Republican House Minority Leader Bob Michel of Peoria, who exited when Foley did, to some degree both the victims of the Newt Gingrich-led, take-no-prisoners "Republican Revolution."

In a weekend essay for The Washington Post, Michel wrote that "Foley's stewardship of the House was a reaffirmation of what the Founding Fathers intended. He was a partisan, but he was fair, intellectually honest and decent. He was a master of legislative procedure and an excellent political strategist. His most important virtue, however, was his trustworthiness. His word was his bond. And in relationships between leaders" - and if you just asked yourself, "Relationships between leaders?" you're forgiven - "nothing is more important than trust."

Back then Foley and Michel, as the respective leaders of their parties in the House, had regular meetings, which Michel noted "have not been repeated since." When they disagreed, as they did on the first Persian Gulf War with much of Foley's majority caucus strongly opposed to an invasion, that still didn't stop the speaker from allowing Michel's resolution to go to the floor for open debate and a vote. When they left Congress on the same day in 1994 - Foley as the first speaker since the Civil War to be defeated for reelection - after long and distinguished careers, Foley invited Michel to assume the chair on the speaker's podium during his farewell address, "the first time in 40 years a Republican presided over the House, if only for a few minutes," wrote Michel.

"We were too conditioned by our personal and political upbringing to assume that we had the market cornered on political principle or partisan superiority. We knew, too, that there should always be a distinction, and separation, between campaigning for office and serving in office. We were pupils of the old school ... political adversaries but personal friends ... icons of a bygone era."

We appreciate, of course, that there were critics of that old school - some described it as going along to get along at the sacrifice of ideology or principle - whose attitudes helped hand Gingrich and his pitbull political style the reins. But 20 years later, is today's rancorous atmosphere better, more productive? The American people evidently don't think so, and neither does Michel.

"It is a sad footnote to Tom's death last week that the Senate and the House of Representatives, the crown jewel of our democratic republic, are held in lower esteem by the public than at practically any time since those records have been kept," wrote Michel.

Page 2 of 2 - Alas, the vicious Gingrich smear campaign that helped unseat Foley has become more or less the norm. Washington has evolved into a poisonous place, utterly dysfunctional, virtually absent of statesmen. The advice Foley gave Gingrich as he walked out the door - "You are the speaker of the whole House and not just one party" - went unheeded by Gingrich and pretty much those who followed. Does anyone think Nancy Pelosi or John Boehner presided over the chamber with those words in mind?

To be sure, Foley was at the center of some major legislation over which people argue bitterly even to this day - he helped pass an assault weapons ban, advocated for a couple of tax increases in the cause of deficit reduction, helped Bill Clinton pass NAFTA - but he deserved better, and so did the American people. (Foley, by the way, was succeeded by a term-limits embracing George Nethercutt, who promised to serve three terms but stayed five, and if you've never heard of him, you can be excused for that, too.)

All of which brings us to the present, with some in Congress now promising to change their ways, having suddenly experienced the epiphany that their conduct has brought them neither success nor applause from much of the nation. We are not inclined at this juncture to bestow too much credit upon them, or to put them in any so-called "sanity caucus" until they can consistently show they belong there. They could learn a thing or two from the likes of Foley and Michel.